Enbridge's second-quarter profit rises with crude transport

Net income rose to C$756 million ($691 million), or 91 cents a share, from C$42 million, or 5 cents, a year earlier, the Calgary-based company said in a statement. Excluding one-time items, per-share profit exceeded the 39-cent average of 12 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Enbridge is benefiting from rising production from Alberta’s oil sands which has increased demand for infrastructure to move the crude to refiners. That has spurred Enbridge to plan C$41 billion worth of investments from 2013 through 2017, including new and reversed conduits.

The company is a 50-50 partner in the Seaway oil pipeline which runs between Cushing, Oklahoma, and Freeport, Texas. The 500-mile pipeline was reversed in June 2012 to help refiners seeking more access to booming oil output from Canada and the mid-Continent.

The company won approval from the Canadian government in June to proceed with its C$6.5 billion Northern Gateway pipeline, which would carry Alberta bitumen to the Pacific Coast of British Columbia. The project must fulfill 209 conditions placed on it by regulators, as well as convince locals along the proposed route that it won’t damage salmon streams and estuaries.

Canadian oil-sands output is set to more than double to 4.1 MMbpd by 2025 from last year, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, an industry group.